A fist full of diodes: 'Westworld' comes to HBO

The towering, dusty orange-hued buttes that rise majestically across the bone-dry desert of Utah’s Castle Valley near the town of Moab, would seem like a strange backdrop for a futuristic fairytale about robots and the nature of humanity.But it all makes sense in “Westworld,” (Oct. 2, 9 p.m.) HBO’s new sci-fi fantasy about a sprawling, high-tech theme park where rich visitors can act out their most bloody and debauched Wild West fantasies with machines called “hosts.” These robots are so life-like, no one can tell the difference between them and humans. “The reality is that Westworld is designed so that guests can indulge with impunity their every fantasy — be it light or dark,” says co-creator Lisa Joy. “So the hosts experience the extremes in human behavior, good and bad.…